There was much internet lamentation on the day Sparrow's CEO, Dom Leca, announced that the company had been purchased by Google. If you are one of Sparrow's devotees, you groaned along with us. Sparrow, for those not in the know, is a truly excellent mail app for the Mac and the iPhone that simply puts others to shame with its slick interface, its ease of use, and its outstanding implementation of nearly everything you could want in an email client.

With the development team likely being tasked with improving the Gmail app, it's unclear how long support for Sparrow will continue and if we will ever see the long-teased and longer-hoped for iPad version of the app or push notifications. While on the Mac and on the iPhone, Sparrow continues to shine, a day will come when you'll need a new email app on your iOS device. Here a few we've found to try to take the sting out of losing our favorite little bird.